It’s snowing out, it has been for the last 48 hours, and you lost your power six hours into the storm. Your generator has been running, and doing its job. You have heat, water, lights, and even can cook on your stove. You’re sitting in your living room in your favorite chair, fireplace going, and watching the snow fall outside you picture window. Life is good. The best decision you made last year was installing that whole house automatic generator.

You just got done watching the 11:00 news, and the outlook isn’t good. Over 150,000 people out of power and the expectation is that it will be a week and half before power is restored to some people.

You enjoy sitting by the fireplace, with a cozy fire, reading your favorite book. The fire is getting low, so you add a little wood, and just as you do, you hear a huge crash, and the house shakes. No worries, it’s just the snow sliding off your new metal roof, another good investment.

You settle down to read some more, relaxing in you pj’s. Yup, life is good. Peace of mind to the fullest.

All of a sudden, your lights flicker, then they go out, and you hear the generator shut off. The only light you have now is the light from the fire.

You go outside to check your generator, and it isn’t there, in its place is a big pile of snow. You just realized, the snow from the second story floor just landed on your generator. The lump is in your throat, the panic, and the peace of mind is gone.

You call your technician and ask him to come out, of course coming out at that time is impossible, the roads aren’t even passable. The tech tells you he’ll get there as soon as possible, hopefully the next day, but he has calls ahead of you.

However, after you explain to him what happened, he regretfully tells you that if indeed the generator is crushed, it isn’t covered under warranty. It just seems to get worse. Your peace of mind is gone. This generator is less than a year old.

The next morning you go out and shovel out your generator, and your suspicion is right, the top of the generator is crushed. You go back in your cold house, and call your tech and tell him.

The tech makes out later in the day. After working on it for awhile, you hear the generator turn over, choking, spitting, and puttering until it chokes off. You hear it a couple more times, then it fires up, and your lights come on.

He has good news. Even though the generator was crushed, that wasn’t the reason it shut off last night.

In fact, what caused the generator to shut off was that when the snow fell, it blocked the intakes for the air supply, sucked in snow, and the generator choked itself out. Even though the generator has a big dent in the top, it is running fine.

Never place a generator under the eaves where snow and ice can fall onto it and damage the generator. Many times it is the most convenient place to put the generator, and many installers will place it there, or the customer will insist it to be place there to save money on the installation cost. Again, NEVER place the generator where snow from the roof will fall on it.

The above is an actual case that happened and we responded to. The customer bought the generator, placed the generator, then hired an electrician and gas company to hook it up.

NEVER place the generator in this location.

Instead, relax in you pj’s reading your favorite book by your fireplace, watching the snow bounce of your window.

If you have any questions, please forward them to dirfygenerators@yahoo.com.

Doing It Right For You – DIRFY Generators 1-207-637-3346

We have generators in stock – in most cases we can deliver in less than a week

Financing on approved credit starting at less than $ 70/mo with no money down

Our primary brand comes with a six year parts, labor, and travel warranty

(not like some that have a five year warranty, parts only after two years)